When Janine Vaughan left a Bathurst nightclub in the early hours of December 7, 2001, it was the last time anybody saw her. She got into a small red car and vanished.
Her body has never been found, and her family have no idea what happened to her or why.
The 31-year-old clothing store manager had moved to Bathurst three years earlier, but Janine was considering moving back home to Muswellbrook NSW, to be with her family, according to younger sister, Kylie Spelde.
Tragically, she never got that chance.
Kylie was at work when her parents called her to say that Janine hadn’t arrived at her job that Friday morning.
Always reliable, her family knew straight way something was wrong.
“I was working at my local RSL the next day and Janine’s face appeared on the TV news as a missing person. That was horrible,” recalls Kylie.
Janine had left the nightclub with two friends. After chatting, she walked about 20 metres ahead of them to the corner of George and Keppel Streets in the city centre.
It was about 4am when a small red car stopped next to Janine. After about 20 seconds, she got in and the car drove off.
Another woman later told police she’d been stalked about 10 minutes earlier by a person in a red car.
In 2019, a $1 million reward was offered to help solve Janine’s suspected murder.
Kylie spends hours monitoring the Help Find Janine Vaughan Facebook page – while the podcast, The Night Driver, took an in-depth look at the mystery.
“I go out digging to try and find her,” says Kylie.
“This has tormented me for half of my life. Janine’s with me when I wake and she’s there when I close my eyes. Mum passed away years ago and I haven’t grieved for her yet. When I find Janine, I can grieve for them both.
ARTHUR HAINES
Arthur Haines was a caring 13-year-old whose life ended during a sleepover at a friend’s house.
At about 10:30pm on April 9, 1998, emergency services arrived at a house fire on Walker Street, Waterloo in Sydney.
Arthur managed to escape the flames but suffered severe burns and died in hospital 11 weeks later.
Forensic investigators said the fire had been deliberately lit, and a 2001 inquest into Arthur’s derath heard of tensions between neighbours in the street.
In 2020, the NSW Government announced a $1 million reward to help solve the case.
Arthur’s mother Julie Szabo needs answers.
“If you’ve got a heart and a conscience, please come forward,” she pleaded.
“My son was kind and gentle boy. He was always reaching out to help people. He was very caring and loving, well-mannered and respectful to his elders. He always put everyone else first.”
Just two years later, a breakthrough occured when Gregory Walker was arrested and charged with killing Arthur.
In Decemeber 2025, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was serntned to 10 years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of six-and-a-half years.
“No sentence that I impose can right the wrong that has been done,” Justice Hament Dhanji said during Walker’s sentencing hearing.
“No value can be put on the life of Arthur in terms of years of imprisonment or otherwise.”
BRENDA GOUDGE
When Brenda Goudge’s body was found in the swimming pool of her hom in Wantirna South, Victoria, on July 8, 2011, the 61-year-old grandmother was bruised and wrapped in bloodied bedclothes.
Nobody has been charged with the crime. The evening before the grisly discovery, Brenda phoned her sister Sue McCormack.
“She’d called to thank me for sending her some pictures of the Andre Rieu concert we’d been to, two weeks earlier,” says Sue.
The sisters also discussed long-standing issues Brenda had with a colleague at the auto parts business she part-owned.
The following day, Sue was at work when she received a call telling her Brenda was dead.
“I had every expectation that the police would catch this person and we’d see them sentenced to life,” says Brenda’s son Adam, who battled with Sue to ensure Brenda’s killer is brought to justice.
“Mum was the centre of our family and we want vengeance. We want to see other people protected from the person who did this.”
In 2016, a coronial inquest found Brenda had been attacked in bed, and suffered blows to her face and skull.
She was smothered and placed in the pool, but the inquest found there was not enough evidence to name her killer.
“Brenda loved parties and Christmas. She told me that housework should only be done when you see dust because she had better things to do!” says Sue.
“I shed a tear for her everyday and I think about the fear she felt that night. Whoever did this has had nine years of freedom that they don’t deserve.”
